Gene Frenette: Camacho more than repaid JU baseball investment in him

Tuesday

The perfect marriage between a student-athlete and the only school that offered him a scholarship ended Saturday in a most captivating moment at the ASun baseball tournament.

Angel Luis Camacho III, the calm, even-tempered third baseman for Jacksonville University, couldn’t hold it together. He was bawling his eyes out as his father, Angel Jr., bear-hugged him after the Dolphins’ season ended in a 5-2 loss to eventual champion Liberty at Stetson’s Melching Field.

The tears weren’t so much for losing a game, crushing as it was since JU had been in ideal position to win the tournament before suffering a 16-inning defeat to Stetson the previous day. It was more the emotion being released as an appreciation for Camacho’s four-year baseball journey with the Dolphins.

“It wasn’t until I started packing my bags and moving out of the dugout that I started to get a little emotional,” said Camacho. “Then I see my sister, Emily, crying and my mother, [Betzy], is crying. When I hugged my dad and cried on his shoulder for probably 10 minutes, I felt like the biggest little kid ever.

“Really, it was one of the purest and saddest moments I’ve experienced in my life.”

Just imagine, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound ballplayer shedding a river of tears on the shoulder of his 5-foot-8 father as the curtain closes on his college baseball career. Win or lose, every kid who ever fulfilled a dream of playing ball at any level should have a moment like that.

The Camacho family earned the right to let all raw emotion come out because it was a reminder that all good things do have an ending. Though falling short in the ASun semifinals wasn’t the desired outcome, the opportunity JU baseball gave Camacho and the way he repaid that gesture deserves some recognition.

First of all, no other Division I school besides JU or any junior college offered Camacho a scholarship, partly because the former Creekside High shortstop missed his junior season with a torn labrum. By the time he graduated, he was still a lanky 180 pounds, but then Dolphins assistant coach Chris Hayes (now three years into duties as head coach) loved his potential and academic profile.

“He had the hand-eye coordination and you knew when his body filled out, he’d be a special player,” Hayes said.

It was a spot-on scouting report, one that came to fruition in every way possible. On and off the field, Camacho did everything the right way. He strengthened his body by putting on 15 pounds before enrolling at JU, then became a part-time starting first baseman as a freshman.

Two years later, he would hit a career-high .329, lead the ASun with 58 RBIs and make first-team all-conference. This past season, Camacho made the difficult switch to third base, yet still hit .321 with a career-high 10 home runs and repeated as a first-team, A-Sun recipient. He also made just seven errors in 136 chances.

Now being a .300 career hitter for the Dolphins, while finishing in the top 10 all-time in hits (251), RBIs (155) and games played (220) is a fine resume. But it doesn’t tell the whole Camacho story or explain why he couldn’t stop crying on his father’s shoulder.

You see, Camacho wasn’t just a ballplayer going to school. He was also an elite student who played baseball, a critical combination at a private school that costs $53,000 per year (tuition, room and board) to attend. Not only did Camacho graduate with a degree in kinesiology in three years, compiling a 3.89 grade point average, he’s now just four classes short of an MBA.

With only 11.7 baseball scholarships, JU has to target academically strong players so they can be eligible for academic aid to reduce the out-of-pocket costs. Until he enrolled in a master’s program, Camacho, who turns 22 next month, was able to cover about 55 percent of his college costs with academic money and the rest through his baseball scholarship.

It’s a remarkable story when you consider how it all began. Betzy gave birth to Angel when she was 20 and his father, who spent only a brief time in college, was 21. They didn’t get married until two years later, with Angel serving as ring-bearer.

“We put ourselves in that circumstance and we were determined to spearhead it into a positive situation,” said Angel Camacho Jr., who serves as vice-president of HHS, a hospital-support service provider. “This is not a kid we’re raising on welfare. His mom laid a great foundation as far as academics.”

So the fact the first of three Camacho kids graduated from JU without incurring any student debt, and put together a baseball career that far exceeded the expectations of most college scouts, it’s no wonder tears of joy and sadness flowed when it was over.

“Angel showed more emotion in that 10 minutes than I’ve ever seen,” said his father. “As a parent, you’re struggling for words in that situation. The thing I’m most proud of is he got the absolute most out of his talent. He was true to the game and it was very good to him because of it.”

The JU third baseman hopes to hear his name called for the first time next week in the amateur baseball draft, but is under no illusion about his true value or when he might get selected. Camacho will get his master’s degree later this year, then plans to join his girlfriend, former JU softball player Kamille Larrabee, in pursuing a career in sports psychology after he’s done with pro baseball.

“I just want the chance to prove myself somewhere,” said Camacho. “I’ve always heard people say to play [pro ball] as long as you can. I never really understood that until I played my last college game.”

Wherever the next step on his baseball journey takes Angel Camacho, or even if he never gets anywhere close to the big leagues, he has more than repaid the investment JU and his own family made in him.

In the end, it was worthy of a good cry.

gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540

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